Adding a Note to a secondary--good idea, or no?

[juddson]

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My top choice does not offer early decision. I had contemplated adding a small sticky note or something to the secondary, indicating that it was my top choice. But the secondary is electronic, and so the only place to include this sort of information is in the essay.

Do any of you suppose it would be a bad idea to include a small paragraph after the essay answer which says something like "I was dissapointed to learn that medical school x has discontinued its early decision program--I surely would have used it. Medical school x is my first choice". . .or something to that effect?

What do you think?
Judd

 

[Cantal]

I would definitely call the admissions people on this one for the specific school you're working with. Some schools specifically write like 12 times on their secondary DO NOT ATTACH AN EXTRA SHEET so your essays are limited, so I would think twice if the admissions person you speak to says this additional information is not allowed. Also, this is the kind of thing you can definitely mention at the interview.

If your heart is really dedicated to the school though, I say write the extra paragraph attachment if the admissions people ok it 🙂

-Cantal

 

[PMED99]

Sending a separate letter entirely separate from the secondary can be a good Idea. Just make sure you wait about 2-4 weeks before sending it.

I did that last year before I ever got a secondary, and I found out that they kept it in the file. And this was a school that claims they dont want excess info.

Do it, the worst that can happen is they throw it away without reading it.

My 2 cents take it or leave it

 

[Cantal]

I agree with pmed-- I just spent the last week or two sending out an update to my amcas to the schools I was applying to regarding an important leadership opportunity I received. Before I did that though, I called and checked to make sure it was ok, and even though 85% of the schools gave me the ok to send before even getting their secondaries, some of them (including Stanford, Univ of WI, Univ of Iowa) said it would be better to keep it until after secondary arrives.

 

[siempre595]

Send the letter extra. No sticky notes anywhere, and it's too important to shove into an essay. Be sure you are sure about making it your first choice, even before seeing other schools. You're making a committment by doing that. Most schools will read the letter and take it pretty seriously.

 

[Lab-Rat21]

Write a SEPARATE letter of intent, you can do that by searching for those words in this forum...but say you learned from their website since you have not technically interviewed there...I think they will look at it but maybe not as seriously since you have not interviewed etc...

But a separate letter is 100 times more professional than some sticky note or an uncalled for little paragraph that may cause your application to be thrown out...it is not worth the risk to write that little paragragh...write a letter.